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Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani
For other uses, see . '''Al-Haafidh Shihabuddin Abu'l-Fadl Ahmad ibn Ali ibn Muhammad', better known as Ibn Hajar due to a fame of his forefathers, al-Asqalani due to his origin () (, – d. , ), was a medieval scholar of who represents the entire realm of the Sunni world in the field of Hadith. Biography Early life and education He was born in in 1372, the son of the scholar and poet . Both of his parents died in his infancy, and he and his sister, , became wards of his father's first wife's brother, , who enrolled Ibn Hajar in Qur'anic studies when he was five. Here he excelled, learning in a single day, and progressing to the memorization of texts such as the Quran, then the abridged version of Ibn al-Hajib's work on the foundations of . When he accompanied al-Kharrubi to at the age of 12, he was considered competent to lead the prayers during . When his guardian died in 1386, Ibn Hajar's education in Egypt was entrusted to scholar , who entered him in the courses given by (d. 1404) and (d. 1402) in Shafi'i , and (d. 1404) in hadith, after which he travelled to and , to study under (d. 1407), (d. 1401), and (d. 1401). After a further visit to Mecca, , and , he returned to Egypt. In 1397, at the age of twenty-five, he married , who was a hadith expert in her own right, holding s from . She gave celebrated public lectures to crowds of , including . Ibn Hajar went on to be appointed to the position of Egyptian chief-judge () several times, authoring more than fifty works on , history, biography, Quranic exegesis (), poetry and jurisprudence. In 1414 (817 A.H.), Ibn Hajar commenced the enormous task of assembling his commentry on . had begun to write a huge commentry on in the 1390s with the title of but had only reached the section on the funeral prayers when he died. Ibn Rajab's work has been published by Dar Ibn al-Jawzi and comes to an amazing 7 volumes for just the first 12 of the 77 sections of Sahih Bukhari (i.e. less than a 1/6 of the entire work). One can only imagine how vast this work would have been if Ibn Rajab had been able to complete it. Thus Ibn Hajar decided to name his own commentry with the same title, ,which in time became the most valued commentary of .When it was finished, in December 1428 (Rajab 842 A.H.), a celebration was held near Cairo, attended by the ulema, judges, and leading Egyptian personalities. Ibn Hajar read the final pages of his work, after which poets recited eulogies and gold was distributed. It was, according to historian d. 930 A.H., 'the greatest celebration of the age in Egypt.' Death Ibn Hajar passed away after prayers on February 2, 1449 at the age of seventy-nine. His funeral in Cairo was attended by an estimated fifty thousand people, including and the . Works *'' - considerably the most prominent and reliable commentory on al-Bukhari's Jami` al-Sahih. *''al-Durar al-Kamina'' - a biographical dictionary of leading figures of the eighth century. *'' - an abbreviation of ''Tahdhib al-Kamal, the encyclopedia of hadith narrators by al-Mizzi. *'' - the most comprehensive and widely-used dictionary of Companions. *'' - on hadith used in Shafi'i fiqh. *''Taqrib al-Tahdhib'' *''Nata'ij al-Afkar fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Adhkar'' *''Lisan al-Mizan'' *''Talkhis al-Habir fi Takhrij al-Rafi`i al-Kabir'' *''al-Diraya fi Takhrij Ahadith al-Hidaya'' *''Taghliq al-Ta`liq `ala Sahih al-Bukhari'' *''Risala Tadhkirat al-Athar'' *''al-Matalib al-`Aliya bi Zawa'id al-Masanid al-Thamaniya'' *''Nukhbat al-Fikar''along with his explanation of it entitled Nuzhah al-Nathr *''al-Nukat ala Kitab ibn al-Salah'' *''al-Qawl al-Musaddad fi Musnad Ahmad *''Silsilat al-Dhahab'' *''Ta`rif Ahl al-Taqdis bi Maratib al-Mawsufin bi al-Tadlis'' References External links *http://www.masud.co.uk/ISLAM/ahm/bari.htm *Ibn Hajar Asqalani and his Commentary Fath al-Bari